Parallel
by NonsensicalCheshire
Summary: In a different place, they were, well, different. There was less friction, less hostility, though the relationship was still interesting. And it kept getting more and more interesting still as they got to know each other more and more. / / Edo-ElfEver
1. Edolas

A/N: I was always wondering as I read the Edolas Arc, "What about the Raijinshuu? Were they some of the ones killed in the guild massacre that the king performed?" That thought broke my heart, so I pushed aside the thought. Then I saw the cover with Edo-Shadow Gear and it hit me: _**Shadow Gear in Edolas is the strongest three-man team, just like the Raijinshuu is in Earthland. **_So I thought about it and I came up with this.

. . . . . . . .

"Which way, which way, which way?" the woman muttered as she walked through the city. Her long, wavy/curly brown hair hung loose over her shoulders and she wore a modest cream turtleneck and a long, ankle-length brown skirt. Her deep, warm brown eyes shimmered brightly with excitement as she looked over the map.

"Evergreen-chan will definitely find the way!" a voice came from behind.

"I was about to say that!" followed up another voice.

"Can you two ever stop fighting?" finished a third.

An affectionate smile spread over her face as she turned, her brown hair flying. Behind her were three men; the first to have spoken was a man, her senior by a year, with grass green hair pulled sharply back, wearing jeans, boots, and a leather jacket. Butting heads with him was a man easily a head taller with shaggy blue-ish hair atop a somewhat gaunt face, who wore jeans and a purple sweater that showed off his lean frame. Walking behind the three companions was a man with blonde hair in a droopy but spiky style, slacks, a button-up shirt, and a black vest.

"I most certainly will find the way, boys!" the young woman, barely twenty, chirped. "Just follow me!"

"Yes ma'am!" two of them said, while the blonde man huffed, smiled, and indeed followed them.

"Evergreen-chan?" said the one with blue hair. He'd caught up with her and was leaning down over her shoulder to observe the map. "Why are we joining a guild again?"

"Why not, now that they're not illegal, Bickslow?" Evergreen stopped, looked at the surrounding shops, frowned, then continued. Her flats clicked on the cobblestone.

"What's the point, though, without magic?" asked the green-haired one.

She stopped in the middle of the bustling street, put her hand on her curvaceous hips, and turned to face the three men. "The point is, Fried, that guilds still give people a job, do good and helpful things, and we'll have a home. That is the point." She turned on her heel and continued on. "Now, I'm told that this guild has a very distinct look…"

"Did you say guild?" Evergreen turned. Laxus bumped into her and they both stumbled. He caught her shoulders and she blushed prettily and looked over at the source of the voice. "I did," was her response. There stood a plump old woman holding a basket filled with fruits and vegetables. She smiled. "The guild around here is called Fairy Tail, and they've done a whole lot of work for the royal city after the attack of the Great Demon Lord Dragneel, bless their souls."

A sunny and happy smile flashed across the brunettes face. Her companions grinned at her happy expression. Evergreen was ever the cheerful soul, but the prospect of joining a guild had made her even happier as of late. "Yes! Yes, that is the one I am looking for! Would it bother you if I asked for directions, ma'am?"

The old woman smiled and laughed. "Not at all, young miss. What you'll do is go towards the edge of town and take a right. They've put their guild down there, and you'll know it when you see it." She waved and began to walk off.

Evergreen waved energetically. "Thank you ma'am! Have a wonderful day!" She folded up her map, stuffed it in her dark green traveling bag, and grabbed Fried and Bickslow's hands (here they blushed and smiled like idiots), and smiled at Laxus. "Come on! Let's go to Fairy Tail!"

. . . . . . . .

"Well," Laxus said, taking his place in front of the group. They all leaned out from behind him and looked at the building. "It certainly looks interesting."

"Oh!" Evergreen had her hands clasped in front of her chest. "I've been wanting to join this guild since before they were even banned! I'm so excited!"

Evergreen, an orphan since a young age, had been traveling by herself for years, hoping for the restoration of guilds. Along the way, years before, she'd met her three companions, and they'd traveled around together, hoping for the day when they could join a guild and find a permanent home. As you can imagine, the fact that that day was upon them excited them greatly, even if magic didn't exist in Edolas any more.

"Let's stop standing here and head in, then." And with that, Laxus pushed open the doors to Fairy Tail.

. . . . . . . .

The guild was as loud and rambunctious as usual, except now the energy was genuine. No longer were they exiles to hide in the shadows and fear execution, but they were a guild who could legally _live_. Everything was as it normally was; Gray clung onto an exasperated Juvia, Wendy sat at the bar looking bored, and Cana sat a table and read while Macao and Wakaba attempted to get her engaged in drinking.

Elfman and Mirajane sat behind the bar, quite as usual. Mira rubbed a glass squeaky clean while her little brother kept her company, occasionally getting things for her from the highest shelves, or grab her out of the way and hold her protectively when a person crashed into the side of the bar and sent things flying. He seemed to be holding onto her a lot more since Lisanna had left a month and a half before. It had been heartbreaking for both to see her tears as she glowed and was forced up into the portal sucking her up, hear her screaming their names as she left.

"Elfman," came his sisters soft voice. He looked down at her, his straight hair falling into his eyes. "Maybe we could go home early today." Mirajane set down the glass and rubbed at her eyes with her gloved hands. "I'm afraid I don't feel well today. Headache."

"Sure. Whatever you want to do." He lapsed back into silence again, and it remained that way until the doors creaked open. Many ignored it, but most whipped their heads towards the door.

A man was pushing open the door, grunting at its weight, and two men flanked a young woman, both with their arms out in front of her. Elfman and Mira strained to see better; they caught better glimpses of the men, but not of the young lady who was burying her face into the jacket of the one with green hair. He looked to be in pure bliss at her action.

"C'mon, Ever." The blonde man grabbed the two others and pushed them away from her, then grabbed her by the shoulders. "No one is gonna bite, I hope."

"Eh?" There was the thumping of boots as Lucy Ashley marched up to them. "Who're you supposed to be?"

The brunette looked at Lucy with wonder and a flash of apprehension before putting on a sunny smile, not unlike the one Mira wore a lot, and bowed down. Lucy wore a bewildered expression and sniffed.

"You must be Lucy Ashley-sama," said the brunette, who, now seeing her from a bit closer, Elfman could tell was quite pretty, and other men in the guild must've thought so because they were flocking over to her as well. "I've heard a lot about you this past month! My companions and I were wondering if you were accepting people into your guild."

Lucy, the surrogate leader of the guild until a permanent master was found, crossed her arms over her barely covered chest. "Depends."

The young woman, still smiling, said, "Depends upon what?"

"If I like you." With that she jammed her face up close to hers and narrowed her eyes. The woman smiled, a bit more unsurely, and sighed with relief as the blonde's gaze fell to her three male companions. "Who're they? You're boyfriends?"

"My companions; my family." She still smiled. It was uncanny how long she could hold that smile. "We've always wanted to join a guild and decided to take advantage of the changed circumstances. We don't really have a place to go or work."

The green-haired man scowled at her as she got in his face. "Problem?"

Lucy glared at them all again, then took a deep breath and let it out. "No, no problem. We haven't even had anyone come to join our guild in a long long time, so this is refreshing." She held out her hands to them and gave a grin. "Welcome to Fairy Tail."

The blonde man squeezed the brunettes shoulders as she covered her mouth with her hands and giggled. "Really? We can really join?"

"Giggle like an idiot again and I'll kick you out."

"I'm so sorry!" She took her hands away from her mouth and held it out to Lucy. "My name is Evergreen, Lucy-san. It's very nice to meet you!"

Lucy eyed her hand before taking it and giving it a firm shake. "We've got a lot of perverts in this guild. Pretty lady such as yourself should attract a whole lotta attention."

The brunette, Evergreen, blushed and rested her cheek in a hand. "I'm really not, but thank you for the warning." She looked back at the blonde, then the other two still by the doorway, and jerked her head in. "Won't you three come be polite and say hello?"

"Yes, Ever-chan." Bickslow entered first, and Fried followed a bit more slowly, and they held out their hands for Lucy to shake while they introduced themselves. Laxus politely did the same.

"Well." Lucy climbed up on a table. "HEY!" she shouted. "I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE'VE HAD A WELCOME, BUT EVERYONE BE NICE TO OUR NEW GUILDMATES."

There was a surge of people in line to meet the newcomers. Mira looked up at Elfman and put on her normal sunny smile. "Well, I shouldn't let a nasty headache keep me from saying hello, now should I? Come on, Elfman; we ought to take our minds off of things."

By the time they'd reached the crowd in the midst of the guild hall, some had drifted off, while others were being pushed away. Two of the newcomers, Fried and Bickslow, if memory served, were scowling at men who got too close to their smaller female companion. She seemed embarrassed by their actions and gently tried to push them away from her.

"Excuse me," Mirajane said, slightly pushing through the crowd. "My brother and I would like to meet them. Could you let us through?" After a few slight pushes, which Elfman helped with, they broke through the crowd. Mirajane stumbled on someone's foot and fell over. Elfman reached out to catch her-

-but then there was a pair of arms that she fell into, thin and slender.

"Goodness, there's a lot of people," said the person the arms belonged to. "Are you all right?" It was Evergreen, her knees slightly bent to be able to reach the falling woman and her arms under Mira's. She smiled at her and helped her regain her balance.

"Yes, I am. Thank you for helping." Mirajane adjusted her gloves before taking the other woman's hands in her own, then looked over her shoulder at her male companions. "My name is Mirajane. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance!" She returned her gaze to Evergreen. "This is my little brother Elfman behind me. He's a bit more shy, so I'm sorry about that."

"I-I'm not that shy!" he stuttered. He looked over at the men, who gave him nods, then at the brunette holding his sister's hands. She looked at him with a straight but gentle face and he was able to look at her clearly for the first time. Elfman was struck by how beautiful she was; Lucy had not been lying.

Evergreen held his gaze for just a moment longer then smiled. "Elfman, huh? That's a very nice name!" Mira let go of her hands and she took a step forward to hold one out to him. "I hope we'll see a lot of each other!"

Elfman hesitated for just a moment, seeing the glares Fried and Bickslow were shooting them (he was starting to get the idea that they may very well be jealous), then took her much smaller hand in his own and shook it.

"M-me too."


	2. Misadventures

A/N: Chapter two, hooray! Chapter one got quite a bit of views, so I'm glad!

* * *

"Pull!" Fried and Bickslow tugged at the pole, both grunting.

"Could you two get any weaker?" Laxus sighed.

He and Evergreen were standing at the edge of the street, watching, as the two attempted to pull the pole out of the ground. They were dressed in work clothes; jeans and t-shirts for all. Apparently it had been blasted away from its original spot of who-knows-where and had landed firmly in the ground near the palace. The land keepers had requested that Fairy Tail remove it as a job.

So far it didn't look to be an easy job. The two men sighed, panted, and returned to their teammates.

"Well," said Fried. "What do we do to get it out?"

Evergreen tilted her head and tugged at her bangs. "Hmmm…" The sound gave her the rapt attention of her two adoring teammates and an interested glance from Laxus. "If we had some explosives, or something like that, then maybe…" She sighed and shrugged, defeated. "But that's not going to happen, so I don't know."

The four turned their attention back to the pole.

"We could dig a hole in the ground," Fried ventured to say.

"Yeah!" Bickslow slammed his fist into his other palm. "That would loosen it enough for it to fall over! Then we could carry it off!"

"Well." Evergreen smiled at them adoringly. How smart they were. "It's most certainly worth a shot."

The groundskeepers were kind enough to give them a few shovels to get to work with. They got to work, and after an hour and a half of digging and a few breaks, it seemed like they'd dug deep enough that the pole jiggled a little with a push. The four put their full weight against the wooden mass and pushed.

With a mighty groan, it tilted over, gaining speed as it went; as did the Raijinshuu, all toppling over with it. They all yelled with surprise as they fell back, landing on the ground in a large pile, all on top of the small Evergreen, unfortunately.

"Ow ow ow ow!" she complained. The three men scrabbled to get off of her. In his haste, Bickslow elbowed her in the eye. She shrieked and clapped a hand to her face. "Ouch!"

"E-Ever-chan!" Bickslow hovered over her as she rolled onto her knees and clutched her eye, frantically waving his arms. "I-I'm so sorry!"

"Why'd you hit Ever-chan, idiot?!" Fried growled. Bickslow turned his head and clashed foreheads with the green haired-man.

"It wasn't intentional!"

Laxus, ever watching out for their female companion, bent down next to her. "It's okay, let me see." His voice was gentle as she whimpered and he pulled her hand away from her eye. "Oh." He hissed through his teeth at the nasty sight of her bright red eye. "That looks like it hurts. And you probably have some bruises, too, from three guys each twice your weight falling on you. Come on, you two stop fighting, let's go back to the guild."

* * *

"Evergreen, are you alright?" Cana, fiddling with the brim of her wide hat, hovered around her anxiously. She seemed to have taken a liking to the fellow brunette in the past week, despite the face that she and her team had been gone most of the time in their search for an apartment to live in.

Evergreen was sitting on one of the tables in the guild, a look of pain on her face while she clutched the right side of her face. Fried and Bickslow flitted around her, alternating between checking to see if she was okay and apologizing and fighting with each other. Laxus was talking to Mirajane, asking if she had an ice pack or something.

"Yes, yes, Cana-san, I'm perfectly fine! A little bruised and in pain, but fine." Evergreen smiled at her. "Thank you for the concern."

"H-here, let me see." It was Elfman, walking beside Laxus and holding a bag of ice. "They told me you got some bruises."

Evergreen turned her smile to him. "Nothing I can't handle, Elfman-san." She lowered her hand from her eye and let him bend down to observe it. A frown crossed his face, slightly stretching the scar on the right side.

"Just Elfman is fine," he said gently as he held the ice to her eye. She winced briefly at the cold, then put her hand over his to press it closer. She could've sworn a blush crossed his face, but she couldn't see that well out of her left eye, so she might've been imagining things.

"Just Elfman? Are you sure?" she asked.

He removed her hand, took away the bag, and checked her eye again. The swelling had gone down slightly. "Y-yeah." He gave it to her. "Keep this against it for a little while. It should help a bit."

"Mmm. Thanks." He took a step back and she hopped off the table, stumbling on her feet a bit. She twirled around, observing the guild from her one good eye and smiled. "I've always wanted to be in a guild. And now it's even better than I hoped." Elfman smiled a bit at her. Evergreen lifted a hand and pointed over to their right. "However, I want to know; are those two always like that?"

She was pointing at Bisca and Alazack, a slight brush spread across her face. Elfman buried his face in his hand and sighed. They were doing their usual thing, none of which he thought was appropriate to do in the guild hall.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Well, they seem… Very fond of one another."

"To say in the least."

"In the least, correct."

She smiled at him again (Bickslow and Fried were shooting him that glare again) and he felt his heart skip a beat. He turned his head away quickly to find his big sister leaning over the bar, smiling brightly and moving her hand towards Evergreen in a, "go on, go ahead" sort of a way. Elfman shook his head at her a bit. Mira waved her hand even more aggressively. He took a deep breath and turned back to her.

"H-hey, would you like to-" he started.

"Ever-chan, we'll take you out to lunch to make up for this whole incident." Her teammates were dragging her off while she looked from one to the other, baffled.

"I-it was an honest mistake. There's nothing to make up for, guys. I-I was talking to Elfman…" She turned her head towards him, a confused expression on her face. What was he going to say? Ever gave him a small, brief smile, as if to say, "sorry." And with that, she was dragged out of the guild.

"You hesitated too much, Elfman-san."

He'd nearly forgotten that Cana was there, looking up at him with her brown eyes and an amused and sympathetic expression.

"W-with what?"

"Were you not going to take her out? She seems very fond of you."

He blushed and smiled. "You really think?"

"I'm a woman." She put a tan hand to her chest. "I know these things. Just keep on trying, Elfman-san, I'm sure you can do it!"

* * *

It became harder and harder with each passing encounter. They'd always have a nice conversation (normally with the more outgoing Evergreen leading it), he'd look over to see most of the women in the guild (Mira had let them in on his little crush) staring, urging him on, and he could practically feel their willing of him to make a move.

And each time, her nosy teammates (they were great guys who adored her, really good guys, but they just _got in the way_) would carry her off, be it out to eat, or go on a job, or simply say it was time to go home. Each time Cana would come up and say he had to stay firm in his attempts.

"Elfman, how are you today?" Evergreen came up from behind him, just like every other day, and started up a friendly conversation.

"G-great! And you, Ever?"

"Wonderful!" A look came over her face, like she recalled something, and she held up a finger in a "wait a moment" manner, then turned and rummaged around her bag. Elfman waited, curious, as she pulled out a piece of folded up paper and unfolded it on the surface of the bar.

"Oh?" Mirajane, polishing a glass, put her elbows on the glossy wood and leaned over to observe. "What do you have there?"

"A job," she said. "It's a two person job, and I'd hate to decide between Fried, Laxus, and Bickslow, so I wanted to ask if Elfman wanted to come with."

"M-me?" he stumbled over his words as usual.

"Of course you! You seem so dependable!" she exclaimed.

"What's it for?" Levy leaned over her shoulder and tapped her wrench on Evergreen's head.

"It's a ways away, but it'll take no time by train to get there. Apparently this town has been having some issues with disappearing people and want someone to investigate."

"… That doesn't sound dangerous in the slightest."

"Oh, it'll be fine." Evergreen waved her hand dismissively. "I know how to fight, even without magic." She turned her gaze to the much taller man. "So, how 'bout it, Elfman. Care to help me out?"

"I-" That sounded scary, but then again, it would be a chance to get some alone time with the woman without her teammates getting in the way. "I-well-um, sure."

Ever clapped her hands together in a pleased manner. "Fantastic! The train leaves for the town in three days. I'll be excited to see you then, Elfman!"

She waved as Fried and Bickslow once again came to retrieve her.


End file.
